


A World of Possibility

by Haecceity



Category: Legend of the Seeker, Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Genre: AU, Crossover, F/F, au from Tears
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-20
Updated: 2013-05-19
Packaged: 2017-12-12 09:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/809900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haecceity/pseuds/Haecceity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cara is transported into the events toward the end of Fires of Heaven</p>
            </blockquote>





	A World of Possibility

Moiraine adjusted her skirt and knelt over the blond woman. Her red leathers reminded Moiraine a little of the Aiel cadin’sor but was more form fitting than even Aiel garb. Her breath was shallow and her eyes moved rapidly under her eyelids. What interested Moiraine though were the two sticks holstered like weapons, one at each hip. She put out a hand to touch the and jerked away from the pain. She could see them glowing with magic but she couldn’t understand their purpose. Something from another Age perhaps, definitely sa’angreal.

“She has no tracks,” Lan said firmly, shifting his color changing cloak around his shoulders. He seemed as much a part of the landscape as a rock.

“She landed here,” Moiraine puzzled over those red leather bound sa’angreal. If the woman wore them as weapons, she must know the trick to controlling them. Without that knowledge the sisters back in Tar Valon could spend years without ever unraveling the mystery. As she watched, the woman was slowly fading. Moiraine placed a hand on the stranger’s forehead and attempted to Heal. It was like pouring water into a sieve. 

A thought crossed Moiraine’s mind. At first she dismissed it. She was Blue Ajah, the association of Aes Sedai who involved themselves in causes. Lan was the only Warder she needed. But...

Healing was having no effect. There was another way to boost a person’s natural energy supply; bond them as a Warder. Only Green Ajah, the battle Ajah, bonded with multiple Warders. No Aes Sedai had bonded with a woman in an Age. Warders were for defense. Only Greens needed more than one Warder and even then many said they did not need as many Warders as they took.

A feeling came over Moiraine. Once she had viewed the many paths her life could take. No human mind could take the inundation of so much so fast. All that remained were feelings, hunches. Vague feelings that sometimes nudged her toward something possible or held her back from a turn that would bring disaster. Right now she felt that bonding with this woman would open up possibilities. 

Ropes woven out of spirit flowed from Moiraine to the stranger. Lan said nothing.

***

Cara blinked and closed her eyes again. She focused on the sounds around her, trying to determine where she was. 

“Good. You’re awake,” A man said flatly.

A stone faced man in a cloak of shifting drab colors stood next to a short woman in a grey dress and blue shawl. Cara immediately knew the woman was the one in charge. She stood as tall and straight as she could, looking down her nose at Cara with a fierceness she found comfortingly familiar. She noticed a blue diadem on a fine chain on the woman’s head.

“What are these?” The woman asked, holding up Cara and Triana’s Agiels wrapped in a blanket. 

Cara looked at her warily. She could feel the woman, knew her exact location even with her eyes closed. She sat up and noted that while she had obviously been searched, nothing else was gone or out of place. The man was standing slightly between her and the other woman. She gave him a slight smile with a dash of something feral in it to let him know she noticed. She knew a bodyguard when she saw one.

“I am Moiraine Damodred,” the woman said, clearly starting over. “This is my Warder, al’Lan Mandragoran. You were dying when we found you and there wasn’t a mark on you.”

“So you saved me,” Cara glanced around the tent, locating exits and taking stock. The cynicism in her tone barely drew a reaction. She was certain it was the woman, Moiraine, and not Richard she felt.

“By sharing the kind of bond with you that I have with Lan.” Moiraine said, a challenging look in her eye.

Cara thought about that for a beat. It didn’t mean she couldn’t serve Richard when she figured out what had happened. “My name is Mistress Cara.” She met Moiraine’s challenge with one of her own.

“We’re trying to figure out what happened. You were in the open in the desert with no tracks and no Aiel saw you before we found you. Aiel do not miss anything that happens in the Waste. You don’t have the spark, you can’t channel. If magic sent you here, it wasn’t your own.” Moiraine pressed. “And then there are these.”

“Those are mine,” Cara said softly, her hands tightening inside her gloves.

“I need to take them back to the Tower for study,” Moiraine’s dark eyes met Cara’s. “Unless you can tell me what they’re for.” 

The manipulation was blatant enough to make Cara snort. “They’re weapons and they’re mine. Being your Warder means being a bodyguard.” Her gaze flicked to Lan for confirmation. “I can guard you best with those in my hands.” She wouldn’t admit that she felt less naked totally nude with her Agiels than she did right now. She could take on Lan but she might not win. Winning against both Lan and Moiraine without an Agiel was not impossible but not something she wanted to attempt while there were alternatives. She shook her head. “Which will give you more information, studying them or watching me wield them?” Cara rolled her shoulders to loosen them. 

“I have touched them. Could you show me the trick?” Moiraine asked curiously.

“No trick,” Cara smiled grimly. Eyes on Lan, she reached over and grasped an Agiel. “You just have to embrace the pain.”

“I see,” Moiraine said thoughtfully. “You say you were trained from a young age?”

Cara examined Moiraine closely for any hint of pity or condescension. Seeing none made something in her chest relax. “Since I was nine.” Moiraine’s calm reaction was so different from... Richard, Kahlan, or Zedd. Homesickness washed through her. “I assume you’ll be traveling.”

“Yes,” Moiraine said, not commenting on the shift in topic. “You are looking for something?”

A memory flickered to life in Cara’s mind. Richard and Kahlan arguing and Zedd looking helplessly at her. The memory was fogged by a green haze and it slipped back under the surface of Cara’s mind before she could figure out where it came from. “I was sworn to another. I must find him.” Blue eyes shining coldly above a mocking smile were remembered and gone.

“Where are you from?” Moiraine asked. “I don’t recognize the weapons or your manner of dress.”

“D’Hara,” Cara said though she doubted that anyone who had heard of D’Hara wouldn’t also know about Mord’Sith. The headshake between Lan and Moiraine was what she expected but disheartening. The bond to Moiraine was deeper than the one she shared with her Lord Rahl. She firmly set aside the conflict that thought raised to focus on Moiraine. The flow was smoother and deeper. She knew Moiraine was telling the truth. She doubted the smooth faced woman could lie to her given the clarity with which emotions flowed between them.

“I’ve never heard of it,” Moiraine smiled. “I would like to though.”

***

Cara was seated on a horse Lan and Moiraine had scrounged up for her. Aiel didn’t ride and Cara while used to walking, didn’t see a reason to use her own feet when four others were being offered to her. Everyone was talking about an upcoming war so she was certain she’d find a way to be useful to Moiraine.

She was surprised by how much she wanted that. The other woman had spent as much of the time as close to some former farmboy turned savior as possible. Cara largely trailed along behind, listening in. Moiraine spoke of strange countries and customs, vital information that Cara soaked up as quickly as she could. Any of it could be useful in her search. The bond left her with the impression that this was part of the help Moiraine had sworn to give her. In return, Cara had promised to aid Moiraine and had been bound to her oath. She could find the edges of it sometimes when she considered all her options. Not that she would run away from Moiraine, just that there might be circumstances where it was necessary and having a plan would make it smoother.

She looked on the ruins of a city that had been bustling with life a week ago and knew certainty. Moiraine Sedai would have need of a Mord’Sith bodyguard.

“Tell me more about the Forsaken,” Cara demanded of Lan. Together they looked at the corpses left hanging over the city’s walls.

***

Moiraine used the sweat tent with two of the Wise Ones and Cara. She felt the calm of the Void as she focused on showing no discomfort. She had been enough places and followed stranger local customs to feel no shame in being nude before the Aiel. Cara... it should not have mattered. The woman’s leather uniform left little to the imagination anyway.

If Cara had been lovely unconscious, it was nothing compared to what she was like when she was animated. She didn’t have Siuan’s tongue, thank the Light, but there was something about her that reminded Moiraine of Siuan. There was purpose and authority in them both and nothing of meekness. There was also a hard practicality that Moiraine knew she shared.

Siuan Sanche had been raised as high as anyone could go. She had been the Amyrlin, the leader of all Aes Sedai. Kings and queens had come to attention when Siuan cleared her throat. It had been necessary. To make sure Rand had the freedom to become the Dragon Reborn, to save the world. There had been no room for anything else for either of them. Though Moiraine had sometimes wondered if Siuan knew... Well, if she had, then she had never breathed a word to Moiraine.

Cara smirked at Moiraine and even though Moiraine’s features remained still, she could feel satisfaction from her new Warder.

***

They caught up to Couladin at last outside Cairhien. By now Cara knew this was the city where Moiraine had been born and learned her admirable head for politics. It was a vast place, easily twice the size of the People’s Palace and its attendant settlements. Tomorrow they would break the siege surrounding it. Tomorrow they would face Rand’s pretender enemy. Tomorrow Moiraine would use her magic to Heal fallen soldiers as she was sworn not to fight unless in personal danger or facing agents of the local equivalent of the Keeper. 

Moiraine had explained the Three Oaths of the Aes Sedai and how they bound her. No lying, no combat magic. and no making lethal weapons. Cara thought the restrictions were foolish. They only encouraged the women who took the oaths to cut their words as fine as possible to avoid being trapped by them. That in turn made people less likely to trust them because their words had to be examined with a fine comb. 

When she told Moiraine her opinion the other woman had given her a smile. It had stirred memories of another woman. Cara held up a bare hand but couldn’t feel the ghostly touch of the girl who had held her hand in the dark. Instead, she remembered the limp body at the hands of-

Cara would protect Moiraine.

***

Moiraine returned from the final meeting between Rand and the chiefs filled with dread. She had an inkling of what was coming but only an inkling.

She entered her tent and picked up on some very strained feelings from Lan and Cara was...

Cara kissed Moiraine hard, full of heat and fire. Moiraine considered telling Cara to save her strength. Considered and discarded. She was kissing Cara back and undoing the laces of her uniform.

Lan made an uncomfortable noise and left the tent. He could still feel them in the bond and they could feel him but this felt right.

Cara’s green eyes were alight and her fingers were sure. Moiraine felt as alive as she ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> I have ideas for future chapters but may take awhile to get around to writing them. This plot bunny has been in my head since I first Eye of The World in 2005. I doubt it will completely die anytime soon.


End file.
